In post-apartheid South Africa still gripped in the trauma of its past, reconciliation “starts with each of us”, said Charl van Wyk, a Christian missionary, as he reflected on the events that happened at the St James Church, Kenilworth, in 1993.
July 25 marked 30 years since gunmen affiliated with the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), entered the church, threw M26 hand grenades and opened fire on the congregation with R4 assault rifles.
Eleven people died and 58 others were injured.
Van Wyk, who was 25 years old at the time, recalled: “When I saw a man with a rifle standing in the doorway, I thought, ‘I wonder if this is the play that is to be presented to the young people tonight?’
The chaotic scene that was unfolding was no play; it was serious and incredibly real. Grenades were exploding in flashes of light. Pews shattered under the blasts, sending splinters flying through the air. Bullets were fast ripping the pews – and whoever, whatever was in the gunmen’s sights – to pieces. We were being attacked.
Instinctively, I knelt down behind the bench in front of me and pulled out my .38 Special snub-nosed revolver, which I always carried with me. Many people could not understand why I would carry a firearm into a church service, but I argued that this was a particularly dangerous time in South Africa.
“I returned fire at the attackers inside the church, which caused them to flee; I followed up on foot and fired at the getaway car, which took off down the road,” said the now-married 55-year-old father of four.
For months after the incident, Van Wyk said he struggled with “hatred and unforgiveness”, until the idea of “biblical reconciliation” struck home.
“I felt devastated, traumatised, scared. I was no hero. With the post-shooting trauma, I blamed myself for not being quick enough to protect everyone. The sleepless nights lasted a couple of weeks where you think people are following you. That went away.
“I did really struggle with the idea of forgiveness, it was difficult. It took me months. I needed a theological and heart change. My mind needed to process and think through these issues.
I came to the conclusion that I had to forgive the attackers. Once I processed that idea, understanding of Scripture, it opened the door for me to reach out to them (the attackers).”
That was the start of reconciliation for him, Van Wyk said.
“Reconciliation is the restoration of cordial relations. It involves a change in the relationship between God and man, and man and man. It assumes there has been a breakdown in a relationship, but a change from a state of conflict to one of fellowship takes place. The Bible contains many examples of people reconciling with one another after having experienced hurt, conflict due to sin, or misunderstanding.
“I’ve been blown away at the friendships that have been forged after the massacre. I was cordially invited to speak at the homecoming celebrations of the former Apla commander, Letlapa Mphahlele, where I met his family and party officials.
“Another meeting in Khayelitsha testified to the cordial relations we can have with one another, despite our many differences.
“Letlapa introduced me to one of the attackers, who was injured during the contact: Gcinikhaya Makoma, who was incarcerated at the time, before the TRC hearings. I visited him in prison many times thereafter,” he said.
He said the past 30 years had been ones of “discovery, meeting over coffee and meals; spending time getting to know each other, discussing religion, politics, world views, and many other topics not usually discussed in polite company”.
“We didn’t cancel each other, we didn’t act in violence, but despite our differences we communicated with respect.”
Maria Bowers was shot in the shoulder and neck during the attack.
She said: “The one bullet I have kept in a box in my cupboard. One woman lost two of her three children that terrible night. I did not die that night. Why?
“Because I have not finished serving the Lord’s purposes, namely, to worship and enjoy him here, and to be there for my fellow human beings in distress. Evil does not ooze from skin colour (which is only skin-deep) but from the heart of mankind. I have found wonderful friends of good character and principles (Xhosa speaking, Indian, German, English, Afrikaans, and even mentally disabled). I am so glad that I learnt not to generalise and throw the baby out with the bath water.”
Four individuals applied for amnesty for the attack at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), including Makoma, Mphahlele, Bassie Mkhumbuzi and Thobela Mlambisa.
One of the four men seeking amnesty for the massacre had told the TRC’s amnesty committee in July 1997 that churches were used as instruments of oppression by the white minority.
PAC spokesperson Mfusi Zonke said the attack was not aimed at the people but rather an oppressive capitalist system.
“The issue that is key, it’s the system the PAC was fighting, not individuals.
“The system is what the PAC wanted to break, not individuals.
“It so happened they were there on our way to break the system and we are sorry for that.
“They did go to the TRC, there was reconciliation, but what about people like apartheid presidents PW Botha?
He died, he never went to the TRC. The question remains: why were some subjected to TRC proceedings and not others, why were our people hanged?
There’s pain on both sides, but there is no neutral platform for both sides and the economic freedom that is needed has still not been achieved. We are still confined in structural apartheid, which continues to breed crime, concentrated in those townships created by the system. The system we wanted to crush is still creating unemployable graduates,” he said.
Human rights activist Nkosikhulule Nyembezi said the quest for reconciliation was the spur that gave impetus to the nation’s complex transformation process and the series of nation-building agreements that continue to emerge.
“The experience of others has taught South Africans that nations that do not deal with the past are haunted by it for generations. The attainment of reconciliation and forgiveness between the survivors and perpetrators of victims of the St James Church shooting is testimony to the fact that the quest for reconciliation was the fundamental objective of the people’s struggle to set up a government based on the will of the people and to build a South Africa that indeed belongs to all.
“This community is one of many encouraging examples and an inspiration to others pursuing the difficult, sensitive task of reintegration,” he said.
“We must be proud of our resilience as a nation that has sacrificed so much to uncover crimes committed during the apartheid era. To embrace the granting of amnesty to those who confessed while also managing to move on with life even in the face of unconfessed crimes that have worsened the suffering.”
Speaking about the challenges of achieving reconciliation, he added: “The path toward reconciliation touches upon every facet of our lives: it requires the eradication of deepening poverty, widening inequality, and chronic unemployment through the dismantling of economic and political systems and the measures that reinforced these, and that we overcome the consequences of these systems that live on in our attitudes towards one another as well as in the poverty and inequality that affect the lives of millions.”
Cape Times
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